By Doug Ward

12th Mar, 2023 | 4:40pm

Union Bears ruin Rangers protests with ill-thought 'anti-police' banner as Ibrox image emerges

Rangers versus Raith Rovers won’t be remembered for anything other than the off-field scenes regarding the Union Bears, Police Scotland and the club’s board.

There have been a number of protests against the likes of Stewart Robertson and Ross Wilson in recent weeks.

Nothing has been personal, nothing has taken it too far.

However, it seems the Union Bears pushed protesting over the line of what’s acceptable on Sunday (12 March) when they had their banners removed by the club for an apparent anti-police stance.

As reported by The National, Rangers’ statement said: “Rangers refused to allow an offensive banner relating to the police service to be displayed at today’s match. 

“The Union Bears elected to absent themselves from the stadium because the Club would not permit the offensive anti-police banner display.”

Union Bears have since responded to the Rangers spokesperson.

In a statement of their own, coupled with an anti-Wilson banner, UB wrote: “Union Bears had planned to display various legitimate message banners at today’s match highlighting different issues surrounding our club and support.

“Prior to the match, Police Scotland and Rangers FC jointly removed these materials without our knowledge and blocked access to regular matchday materials.”

Union Bears went on to call the club’s decision as a “breakdown of trust” and that their attempts to stop the protests will “not be successful”.

However, the offending banner was something to do with the police, which Union Bears refuse to show.

While an image calling Wilson a “director of failure” was shown on Twitter on Sunday, there seems to be an effort from UB to ignore the fact that the club says they were not allowed to show their banners due to an anti-police message.

As far as we can see from the two statements, Rangers aren’t lying and Union Bears have maybe pushed their protests too far.

If that’s the case, they’ve made it too easy for the Rangers board to respond by removing their banners.

If they just kept it about the club and kept it to a level that doesn’t push it too far – for example, that Wilson banner is perfect – then they may have been able to highlight the main issues at Ibrox.

We do need a new board, we do need better recruitment and we do need better leadership.

But what was the point in making a so-called “anti-police” banner?

In other Rangers news, this Ibrox star was slammed for a “needless” second-half incident in the 3-0 win over Raith Rovers.